Living, Breathing, Dying
by The Silent Rumble
Summary: It started as a typical argument... and became mass random chaos!
1. Chapter 1

It started out as a typical argument... and became mass random chaos!  
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No, I don't own them

A/N: A one shot between Frank and Joe.

My first attempt at Joe angst.

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"Stupid," Joe muttered, walking around the chilly winter park. It was snowing lightly. _Stupid, stupid, stupid, _he thought to himself. Why had he ever cared anyway? He had tried to be nice, he had.

But no, stupid Callie had ruined everything… again.

_You're good at nothing, Joe, so stop pretending like you deserve to be on this earth! _ Her irritated voice flashed in his ear. He shuddered. _She's right,_ he thought to himself.

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Frank glared at Callie. "I can't believe you just said that about my brother."

"He messed up my dress, Frank! I paid _FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS_ for it!"

"If I remember correctly," Frank said, "you were the one who spilled the juice. Joe bumped you _afterwards_. YOU ruined your 'four-hundred dollar' dress."

"Frank-" Callie tried to say. "You don't –" she paused.

Frank's eyes were like ice. Callie had only seen Frank get upset a few times, but they usually weren't aimed at her. "Get out," he said.

"What?" she asked, her mouth hanging open.

"Get out. Right now. You know my brother comes first."

"But –" she tried to say.

"We're breaking up, Callie. It's _over_. We're _done_. I don't know what part of 'Joe comes first' you don't understand, but whatever part it is, well, I don't care. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to look for my brother."

"Frank!" she called, running after him in the snow. "Let me help you!"

"Why?" he asked. "So you can yell at him, after I find him? I don't think so. I promised my parents I'd look out for him, and I intend to keep that promise."

"FRANK! I'm sorry," Callie tried to say, trying to plead her way into a fake apology, but Frank would have none of it.

"You're not sorry." Frank slammed the door, got into his car, and started his keys, driving away and leaving Callie behind in the snow.

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Joe watched the lake, frozen over with glassy ice. The snow was beautiful, but he was hardly paying attention. _I'm sorry,_ he thought to Frank. He bit his lip. _When were mom and dad coming home? _He wondered.

Tears ran from his eyes. Frank and Callie were supposed to go to prom that night, of course they couldn't now, that he'd "ruined" Callie's dress.

_Her problem, not mine,_ Joe thought to himself. He shook his head: Of course it was his problem.

He saw Frank's brown van drive up. _Great,_ he thought.

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Frank pulled the van to a stop. "Joe?" he thought. He stopped the car, taking the keys out of the ignition and locking the van.

"Joe!" he called. "Joe, this isn't funny!" he saw Joe's outline on the lake.

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Joe stood on the glassy ice, eying the hole. _What have I got to loose_, he thought, _everyone's mad at me, no one cares…_

"JOE!" he heard a voice come from behind his ear. "Joseph Hardy! What in hell do you think you're doing!"

"Getting away from your life because I can't do anything right!" Joe called.

"Joe! That's a lie!" Frank yelled, running down to the ice. He tripped over a rock and quickly picked himself up.

_Nothing left to loose… _Joe thought as he turned around. Then he stopped, and thought of Frank. _Then again, everything left to loose…_

"Noooooooooo!" he heard himself yell as he toppled into the lake.

_Should I continue? It's marked as 'complete' for now… but that could change._

_Review_

_-TSR-_


	2. Chapter 2

I told everyone I would write one more chapter of this, so I am. I keep my promises.

Please review.

A/N: I'm making this into a three or four chapter book. Not sure. Update once a week, guaranteed. Review please.

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"_Nooooooooooooo!" _Frank yelled, running out into the icy lake. "Joe!" He dived into the lake, pulling at Joe's shoe. Unfortunately, it came off in Joe's hand.

"Help me!" Joe cried, as if awakened by a realization that he didn't want to die, and make life go hazy, and then gone, and he was terrified of drowning. "I don't want to die!"

"I will little brother! I'll save you!" he called. Grabbing onto Joe's foot he pulled Joe to the middle of the lake near where the tree was.

"What in the name of hell possessed you to do that?" Frank demanded, hugging his brother. "Oh, forget that. I'm just so glad you're alive!"

"I hate Callie," Joe said. Tears streamed down his face, and Frank knew he was upset about more then the $400 prom dress.

"I figured as much." Frank shifted to one side. "What happened, Joe?"

"It's a long story," Joe said, looking at Frank. "It's getting dark," he added in a mocking voice, "shouldn't we return home?"

"The night is young," Frank said, looking at the sky. The sky, in reality, was pitch-black. But Frank knew Joe needed to talk, and now was the time.

"Well... six months ago," Joe said, "When you and Callie started dating, you remember the case we had?"

"Yes," Frank said. "The one that involved the killer whales, right?" he asked with a smile.

"Yeah, that's the one. You remember how Shi'n'ln kidnapped me? And you and Callie rescued me and you had to give up your date?"

"Yes," Frank said, "because we got the lead."

"Callie wished that I'd stay dead. Then Aunt Gertrude said it was my fault I was kidnapped in the first place. She said that because I was Fenton Hardy's son I deserved to die. I told her to shut up. She kept on me, though. Guess what she told me tonight?"

"I don't know."

"She found out my secret, Frank. She found out my secret!" Joe swore. He sighed and rolled up his sleeve and Frank gasped.

"Joe?" Frank gasped. "Why?"

"Why am I doing this, because I can Frank, it relieves the stress, I hate myself Frank, I wish you'd have let me die. I want to die!"

"Joe, you can't die. What would I do without you, little brother?" Frank asked. He gently laid a hand on Joe's shoulder.

"Live freely, without me bothering you anymore," Joe said, not bothering to dry his tears. He looked – no was – upset to say the least.

"That's a lie, Joe, what has Aunt Gertrude been doing to you?" Frank demanded. He was sure it was she.

Joe sighed. "I hate her, Frank. I really hate her… and … she's..."

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We'll find out Joe's secret in the next chapter. Let me know how many chapters you think I should make this book.

Thanks in advance.

_Quick shutout: Because I'm reopening the story, please don't flame me. Thanks! _


	3. Chapter 3

Here we go again with another chapter. I changed the title back to living, breathing, dying, but I like the summary.

_When you love someone, you want the very best for them, even if that means giving up everything._

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Joe sighed. "And she keeps yelling at me Frank! I can't take it any more. Mom's yelling at me, Dad's yelling at me, and you're making me mad with Callie."

"Joe, I said I was sorry about Callie, OK? It's in the past now, what's done is done."

"Easy for you to say." Joe sighed. "I wish things could go back to normal."

"Why does Aunt Gertrude yell at you?"

Joe snorted, mimicking Aunt Gertrude's voice perfectly. _"You're not perfect. You should be more like Frank. You only got a C. You only got a B! You got a 97 on your math test. You have stuff on your floor. How come you can't help me with the laptop?" _

Frank sighed. "And Mom says she means well."

Joe grew angry. "Well, she doesn't! I hate her and I hope she goes to hell!"

"Joe!"

"I do!" he said angrily.

"Joe, calm down!"

"I will not calm down, I hate Aunt Gertrude, I hate you, and I hate Mom, hell with it I hate myself…"

"Joe, calm down, okay? I'll help you. I'll help you get through this."

Joe sighed. "Honest, Frank?"

"Honest."

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Laura glanced at the kitchen clock. "It's ten o'clock," she muttered to herself. "They should be here by now…"

"Yeah," Fenton said, coming in and hearing her. "I'll give them a look-see."

"Fenton, I'm sure it's OK. Let the boys be by themselves."

"With Callie?"

"Callie left two hours ago. She muttered something about Frank and walked out the door."

"Oh," Fenton replied. "Well, I'll just go to sleep. Gertrude?"

"Yeah?"

"If the boys aren't here by midnight, wake me up all right?"

"OK."

Gertrude had no intentions of waking Fenton up. She also had no intentions of letting the boys get back before or after midnight.


	4. Chapter 4

_Thanks for all your kind reviews. I can't tell you how much I appreciate them. _

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Gertrude headed out, angry with Joe for staying out late and undoubtedly getting Frank into some trouble. Her heart dropped ten feet when she heard Joe and Frank talking – about her!

"_She WHAT?" Frank screamed._

"_She hit me!" Joe said. "Honest."_

"_I believe you, I just can't believe Auntie G. that's so unlike her." _

"_Yeah," he said. "I'm sorry, Frank…"_

"I've heard enough!" Gertrude snapped, walking up to them. "I can't believe you'd lie about me like that!"

"I'm not lying," Joe said. "I told Frank everything, Gertrude. He knows."

"DeMint," she snapped. She balanced a gun in her hands and Frank gasped. She was mentally unstable.

"You SOBS –" she started to say, but then quickly changed tactics as she heard someone walking up the path.

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Fenton rolled out of bed and his father-son instinct told him that he should be worried about his sons. He glanced in the boy's bedrooms. They weren't back yet, and it was nearly one o'clock – an hour past their curfew!

_Gertrude was supposed to alert me if they weren't back. Well, Frank said he was going to the park. Maybe they're there. _He grabbed his gun and went off after them. He knew he was being paranoid, but with his job you could never be to sure.

He walked along the path before he saw them: His sons and a woman. Walking closer, he saw that the woman was his sister, Gertrude.

_My god! _He thought.

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Gertrude grabbed Frank by the shoulders and placed the gun nervously right at his head. He was spoken up quite a bit, not sure why his aunt was aiming a gun right at his face!

"Gertrude, think what you're doing," Fenton pleaded, having no idea of what was going on. "Speaking of which, what is going on?" he asked.

"Nothing! None of your damn business," Gertrude said.

_Oh, damn it, _Fenton thought. _She forgot to take her meds today. I wonder how often that's been going on… _"Gertrude, did you forget to take your meds?"

"No," she said, lying through her teeth.

_She did, _Fenton thought angrily. He held the gun right at his sister, whose gun was going back and forth from Frank and Joe. It was the only way she could think to keep them both under wraps.

"Meds?" Frank asked.

"Meds?" Joe echoed.

"Gertrude has a disease," explained Fenton. "I can't really go into all the details, but if she doesn't take her medicine, she gets… well, like this."

"_That explains a lot," _Joe thought.

"Shut up!" Gertrude said, placing the pistol at Frank's side. He'd been held hostage twenty times in the last year.

None of them were by his aunt. None of them were by an unstable person.

And he was terrified.

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Fenton dialed the police and spoke quietly into the phone so Gertrude couldn't hear. Soon they arrived with backup, and Laura arrived with her medicine.

_We just have to get her away from Frank long enough to take her medicine…_

Frank screamed when Gertrude shot him in the arm. It started to bleed rapidly, and he didn't know what to think. He winced in pain and then everything went dark…

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The second Fenton saw Gertrude shoot his son, he yelled "GO GREEN" to the sniper who was hidden carefully in the tree. He shot her in the arm and she toppled over.

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SIX MONTHS LATER

All was going well in the Hardy family. Joe was the happy-go-lucky boy he always had been; Frank had recovered from his shot, and Gertrude was in a mental health institution.

Everything was going well, and Fenton hoped it would, for a very long time.


End file.
